Still Neck and Neck

My friendly competition with Joe Nemecek over who has more variations within the Chilton/Crocker family continues . . . I last updated you in “It Isn’t a Race, But If It Was” (June 14, 2020: Volume 6, page 185), and I have a few updates to report - from both of us.

Gabriel Goldsmith’s first care package (see “All Boxed In” on August 27) contained more Chilton pencils than anything else, including one that I believe I’ve handled before.

The last time I saw one of these was  at the Ohio Pen Show, in the hands of the colorful Steve Overbury. It must have been ten years or more ago, right before the “Gang of Five” of prominent pen collectors partnered to purchase Steve’s entire collection. Steve chastised me in a highly vocal and dramatic fashion for taking the top off as I inspected it. Don’t disassemble my pencil, he said, and he refused to even tell me how much he wanted for it. “No pencil for you,” to riff on Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi. 

(As recently as a couple years ago, I could have written that, everybody would get the joke, and move on. These days, as alleged Nazis abound, a disclaimer is in order; maybe I should get a red hat that says “Make Seinfeld Funny Again.” I digress . . .) 

Steve’s pencil may well have been included in the big purchase by the Gang of Five, and his Chilton may have eventually filtered down from there into Gabriel’s hands. Regardless of whether this is that same pencil, I was thrilled to finally acquire one of these leather-covered Chiltons. They are something of a grail find among Chilton collectors, and maybe, I thought, I might finally have the edge on my buddy Joe.

I was wrong. As I was browsing around Joe’s Pencil Pages looking for his Indian combo to share with you the other day, I stumbled across Joe’s picture of just a few of his Chiltons:

Advantage Joe with his three variations . . . and I’ll circle back to that ringtop Wingflow at the bottom in just a moment.  

The next item that arrived from Gabriel is this flat green example with a bolted-on clip. I believe these were intended as student pencils.

I’m sure Joe has a few of these too, but this makes four here at the museum:

Chilton’s “clown” pencils are a collector favorite: it is another one of those plastics, like the Indian plastics, that was almost entirely exclusive to Chilton – when I say “almost entirely,” I haven’t heard of any other manufacturer using it – although I’m all ears if anyone has seen it elsewhere. I managed to add an example to my collection in Chicago, via Pete Kirby, that had a little something special imprinted on the barrel: “Compliments of Chilton Pen Company.”

That makes three over here; I don’t know if Joe has one like this, but I know he’s got the larger example I haven’t been able to scrounge up - Joe’s example was featured in “A Carload of Clowns” (November 24, 2014: Volume 3, page 115).

I took a few shots of some other random Chilton finds a while ago – these are Boston era Chiltons, with their squared off tops.

The second and third ones down make for a nice pair, with bands of black on the jade on one and jade ones on the black.

The biggest uptick in my Chilton collection from Gabriel’s care package came with the four Chilton Wingflow pencils it included.

Chilton guys go crazy for these, with all the different inlay variations they offer; they especially value those with silver metal inlays, which are not nearly as common. Here is an updated shot of my Wingflow spread; Joe has me beat again – his ringtop shown earlier alongside his leather pencils is the only ringtop Wingflow pencil I’ve seen.

Note the clip on that top example – it is different from the others, and appears to be the same clip found on the “Golden Quill,” Chilton’s last gasp introduced in 1939. 

And that leads me to something I found recently as I was cleaning out a junk box so humble that I don’t recall when or from where it arrived . . .